CBI turns attention to colleges Desai favoured

Delving deep: A file photo of Ketan Desai at the Patiala House court in New Delhi. A CBI official involved in the investigation says the agency is in the process of registering cases against more coll

Updated: Tue, Jun 15 2010. 10 54 PM IST

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has started registering fresh cases against colleges favoured by former Medical Council of India (MCI) chief Ketan Desai, who was arrested in April for demanding a bribe of Rs2 crore from a college for granting it recognition.

The investigating agency’s move comes after it started inspecting files of medical colleges that were granted permission to run academic programmes in the past two years.

Delving deep: A file photo of Ketan Desai at the Patiala House court in New Delhi. A CBI official involved in the investigation says the agency is in the process of registering cases against more colleges. Raj K Raj/HT

“Desai showed favours to Sree Balaji Medical College of Chennai, Bhaskar Medical College of Hyderabad, Index Medical College of Indore, Vinayaka Missions Medical College and Rohilkhand Medical College of Bareilly for personal benefits and gains,” said a senior CBI officer associated with the investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The other colleges (he favoured) are Laxmi Narayan Medical College of Chennai, KPC Medical College of Kolkata, Adesh Institute of Medical Science and Research of Bathinda and Geetanjali Medical College of Udaipur,” the official added.

Mint couldn’t immediately reach the colleges named nor could independently confirm whether they had been favoured by Desai.

The CBI officer said the agency had so far registered cases related to Bhaskar Medical College of Hyderabad, Laxmi Narayan Medical College, Rohilkhand Medical College and Gian Sagar Medical College that were given permission to run medical courses despite possessing inadequate infrastructure.

“We are in (the) process of registering case(s) against the rest of the colleges. Whoever is found guilty during the course of investigations will be booked under appropriate sections of law,” the official said.

On 22 May, Mint first reported that CBI was inspecting files at MCI relating to approvals granted to around 40 colleges over the past two years.

The CBI official said the agency has now started looking at files related to “other medical colleges” and that “it is likely that many more colleges” are involved in Desai’s approvals-for-cash racket.

Following Desai’s arrest, MCI was dismantled on 15 May and replaced by a six-member panel of doctors led by gastroenterologist S.K. Sarin. The panel will now reassess all permissions granted to medical colleges during Desai’s tenure.